I was in a wedding this weekend for a good friend of mine. I got him into powerlifting and we were roommates for 2 years. In that time he made huge gains and became very strong. This weekend I watched him get married and couldn't help but think how powerlifting and marriage are similar.

1. Things don't always go as planned......Anyone who says that their plans always work out perfect in powerlifting haven't done it for very long. Like in marriage the first part is easy. Anyone can get along for a few months and anyone can make gains in powerlifting for a few months. But then things change and it gets hard. Plans have to be adjusted on the fly or you will fail.

2. It's a marathon, not a sprint..... It isn't one good training day or one good act that makes a marriage. It's the sum of your actions over months and years that determine how great things will be. It's consistency and hard work that makes things great, whether powerlifting or marriage.

3. You must have great spotters.... In powerlifting spotters are the difference between staying healthy and getting hurt. You must trust those people to catch you when you fail. In marriage your friends and family are your spotters. If you don't have friends and family to guide you in your marriage then it will most likely fail. My friend that was married this weekend has an amazing family and because of that he has some of the best spotters a marriage could ever have, so to me, his chances of success are very high.

4. It's not a matter of "if" you get hurt, it's a matter of how you deal with it when it happens.... Some injuries are worse than others. A strained muscle is nothing, a blown disc takes a bit more rehab. The question is how dedicated are you to getting back on the platform and what lengths will you go to, to get there. Marriage is the same. You can't be around someone all the time without hurting feelings. A little dig is easy but let's face it there are really big injuries that can happen in a marriage and when they do it's the same mentality as powerlifting "what are you willing to do to keep the marriage".

The bottom line is powerlifting is a hard, grueling sport with the only reward being an intrinsic sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Marriage is largely the same type of endeavor.  I had no clue and no one told me any of these things before I was married. I didn't have any knowledge of what marriage was like from my family as I saw 5 divorces growing up.

As I watched my friend get married this weekend I thought about just how similar these two odd endeavors are and wanted to write about it in hopes that some other people who don't understand what it is really like, will have a better appreciation for the similarities.

And here is my 605 x 3 reverse band box squat from today. It felt easy but my knee was a little iffy.